FCC Changes Tune on Broadcast Spectrum Grab

Phil Bellaria, the director of scenario planning for the Federal Communication Commission's broadband task force, recently said that the agency has shelved the idea of forcing television broadcasters to turn over spectrum for wireless broadband purposes. The idea had been considered, but not seriously, he indicated. "The reality is that we are not trying to take spectrum from any individual broadcaster unless that broadcaster chooses to do it," Bellaria said in an interview. "Where we have landed is a scenario that establishes a voluntary marketplace mechanism so that broadcast TV stations have a choice in how they want to use their spectrum. That choice could include retaining all of it and continue to broadcast in HD with broadcast and mobile; relinquishing some of it, because there are many stations not using all of the bandwidth available to it; or in some cases stations making the decision to relinquish all of their spectrum."